More details will follow in January with some Palm Changing shows…but briefly consider this…

It’s best, I think, if the palms do not contain just one feeling. Fire, for example can blast but one would not enjoy sitting by a blast furnace. So let’s give the palms a range of options…not just martial, but a spectrum.

I have a question for you. Do each of the respective 8 Mother Palms’ properties (such as Fire “clings”, Water is “abysmal”, Mist/Cloud is “joyous”) also inherently describe their martial energies, and if so, what are they?

Based on my experience, I would guess that Sky lifts, Earth squashes, Fire blasts, Thunder smashes high, Water crushes low, Wind pierces, Cloud drills, and Mountain cuts.

This is just a guess, however…

Peace.

Yeah…I like when imagination supports experience rather than filtering or twisting it.

I’d love to write on animals, but it will require more tangible experiences. The wilderness area east of me may provide that.

It’ll be a while before the 64 Changes are published and complete here. In addition, when I dig into real connections to animals, expect some shifts away from magic creatures like unicorns, toward real animals, like elk.

Imagine an elk horn weapons form…

My favorite thing is that this stuff is absolutely devastating in martial application while still diving so deeply into so many areas of yourself and those things around you.

Connect with animals and understand them better. Hey Steven – any plans to write on that?

Love digging into the palms!

Change is good. Change is inevitable. Change changes change.

I have a few thoughts on Baguazhang.

Baguazhang is a complicated art. You won’t find one that’s richer in substance. There’s a hell of a lot going on when you do Baguazhang; especially if you’re hitting a form.

Here’s an idea. Choose a primary maneuver in your Baguazhang work (like a single palm change) and hit it and NOTHING but that maneuver for a straight hour and a half for six straight days. Feel free to do other things in your training, but hit your chosen move for said time at least six days in a row. (Why six days? Well, it’s good to train six days, rest one, and then resume). If you’re ballsie and hardcore enough to do it, hit the move for 100 days straight without any days off. Personally I’d start with the six day deal and take it from there.

You’ll love how it feels and you’ll also discover that what may have seemed to be a simple “one-two-three” move is loaded with more subtleties than you had ever previously believed – I guarantee it. Baguazhang is LOADED with subtleties, my friends.

Do this and you will find continual change and development in what once seemed like the simplest of things. To those of you in Steven Smith’s area at present, take the opportunity to train and learn from him. Steven represents a truly fantastic system that has the goods and he possesses a wealth of knowledge.

Thanks for your props Jim.

I’ll always dig the impressions you leave by walking circles.

His book Baguazhang: Fighting Secrets of the Eight Trigram Palms offers those details and is a severely complete reference to develop good form.

I don’t know more about his lineage, and histories are not my forte (but I sure like the stories…).